2012 BFA Thesis Exhibition

Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis Program

The goal of the Marylhurst University Art Thesis program is to assist the senior-level
student in the development of a coherent body of professional-level work. The thesis
project has two components: studio work and a thesis report. The written proposal
is developed in the fall and evolves over the winter and spring terms into a paper
that discusses studio work progress from conception to completion. A thesis committee,
made up of three art faculty members, critiques the student's progress at each stage.
The studio work progresses fall and winter terms and is completed in the spring. At
that time the work is subject to final review, photographed, prepared for installation,
and installed in The Art Gym.

2012 BFA Thesis Candidates

Sarah Pruett has created a series of paintings for her thesis that examine Biblical
stories like the Good Shepherd, Lot's Wife and Daniel in the Lion's Den. In paintings
like Shepherd, Pillar of Peggy and Pete in the Shih-Tzu Den, Pruett seeks to escape
the black and white interpretations taught to her as a child. Pruett substitutes memorable
people from her teenage and young adult years for the Biblical figures and places
them in kitschy domestic scenes full of humorous detail. She writes that she is seeking
to challenge "the meaning assigned to the imagery of these familiar Bible stories"
and replace it with more nuanced interpretations.

Kimberly Kelly juxtaposes planes of color and intersecting spaces and is inspired
by the work of American painters Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993) and Edward Hopper
(1882–1967). Photographs she took on a trip to Rome in 2010 provided source material
for many of her paintings on birch panels. For the artist, these abstract works also
reference family and memory.

Kelly Casad's paintings of working class people take particular inspiration from the
work of documentary photographers Lewis Hine (American, 1874– 1940) and August Sander
(German, 1876–1964). She bases her paintings on particular photographs and because
many of the subjects have passed away, finds that painting "these wonderful faces
serve as a memento mori; a reminder of the brevity of life."

Harper Jade paints with acrylic on wood panels to create her large-scale 15- to 20-foot-wide
paintings. Titled Interstices, each work in the series is made up of four to five
panels separated by small interstices or gaps. Although predominantly abstract, references
to landscape, light and space are present in the works.

Michael Dambach has made a series of biomorphic abstract sculptures of the abdomen,
partially in response to Friedrich Nietzsche's statement, "The abdomen is the reason
why man does not easily take himself for a god." (Beyond Good and Evil, 1886). Working
with paper mache and paint, Dambach offers a grotesque but humorous commentary on
what he calls "the unreasonable or foolish side of being human."

Joanne Radmilovich Kollman uses photography to document her subjects, who are young
and old, friends, strangers and acquaintances. She then uses those photographs as
starting points for her oil on canvas paintings. She attempts to capture a sense of
reverie and what she calls "in-between moments" that are spontaneous and fresh and
convey the "dignity and wisdom of ordinary people."

April Levy's topographical sculptural landscapes are populated with miniature figurines
scaling cliffs of upholstery and egg crate foam, rocks wrapped in hot pink elastic
bandages, and proliferating googly eyes. The artist sees her sculptures as physical
manifestations of psychological space—spaces and places that are childlike, sometimes
terrifying, and in Levy's hands darkly humorous. Levy writes that she is influenced
by the work of filmmakers David Lynch and Tim Burton, writers Roald Dahl, the Brothers
Grimm, and Samuel Becket and comedians Andy Kaufman, Amy Sedaris and Peter Sellars,
all of whom occupy "the space between comedy and tragedy."